My parents are currently visiting these shores and today we treated them to a visit to New Lanark, a former cotton mill village and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, about an hour from Glasgow. I have long wanted to visit New Lanark although prior to my permanent relocation to Great Britain the words "industrial revolution" and "spinning jenny" would strike fear into my heart. In secondary school I had a very eccentric history teacher who persisted in drawing complicated diagrams of how 18th C machinery worked (he'd also draw diagrams of our town's sewer systems). Nowadays I connect "industrial revolution" and "spinning jenny" with local history and, of course, knitting traditions.Fear has been replaced by utter joy.
New Lanark turned out very different to what I had imagined. I had envisioned some lovely scenery coupled with archaic spinning technology. Instead I was greeted by mind-blowing nature, fantastic architecture, great whiffs of History and some rather delicious cake. I picked up a tiny bit of wool - some skeins of Flying Flock shetland/hebridean DK and some 'limited edition' New Lanark Aran - but the visit was far more about jaw-dropping sites and learning new things about my new homeland. Sadly the camera batteries gave out before we could shoot pictures of the amazing sights..
.. but it will not be our last visit.
My parents are here until the end of the week and we are planning a trip up the West Coast on Saturday. I'm thinking a trip to Largs possibly or do my Scottish readers have better suggestions? And no, unfortunately my mother's not hugely into knitting otherwise we'd visit the Old Maiden Aunt studio..